Homeless Youth Research Paper

Words: 712
Pages: 3

Many youths in California have to deal with the strenuous challenges of being homeless. As stated by Sage Horizon, homeless youths are defined as unaccompanied young people ages from 12 to 24 who do not have a permanent place to stay and lives in cars, streets or abandoned buildings. Reasons to become a homeless youth can be because of physical and sexual abuse, strained relationships, addiction of a family member, and parental neglect. Truculent family conditions are the essential reason that young people leave home. When more than half of the youth was interviewed, they said that their parents either told them to leave or knew they were leaving and did not care. Homeless youth are not getting enough support from citizens in the areas of education, healthcare, and food security. In the first place, much homeless …show more content…
“On average, the level of energy (i.e., calories) in their diets approximated the amount required to support a very sedentary lifestyle but fell well below the level of energy needed for someone engaged in more physical activity” (Gaetz et al. 2006). Valerie Tarasuk and her research team produced an important research on homeless youth and nutrition (Antoniades & Tarasuk, 1998; Dachner & Tarasuk, 2002; Gaetz, Tarasuk, Dachner & Kirkpatrick, 2006; Tarasuk, Dachner, Poland & Getz, 2009; Tarasuk, Dachner & Li, 2005; Tse & Tarasuk, 2008). According to her studies in the city of Toronto, young people who are homeless are not getting enough food supplies, and the food they eat is a lot of times unhealthy. When we compare homeless teenagers to house teenagers, homeless youth are not getting enough healthy nutrients. “On average, the level of energy (i.e., calories) in their diets approximated the amount required to support a very sedentary lifestyle but fell well below the level of energy needed for someone engaged in more physical activity” (Gaetz et al.